Who has not suffered from shoulder joint pain at least once in a lifetime? Well, an occasional shoulder pain can amount to nothing, but chronic shoulder joint pain can be the first symptom of rotator cuff tear. The other causes of shoulder joint pain are shoulder arthritis, shoulder dislocation, impingement syndrome, inflammations of the joint and trauma to the shoulder.

What is a Rotator Cuff Tear?

The shoulder joint is held together in place with the help of several muscles, ligaments and tendons. These connective tissue fibers form what is called as the rotator cuff, within which the shoulder joint is encapsulated. When there is a tear injury to any of these muscles or tendons, it is termed as a rotator cuff tear.

The tear could be either of full thickness or the partial thickness variety; but both kinds of tears are associated with shoulder pain symptoms and limited mobility.

Shoulder Pain Symptoms of Rotator Cuff Tear

• Shoulder joint pain is the earliest symptom of rotator cuff tear.
• Patients will find lifting of weights or stretching of arms to be excruciatingly painful.
• Rolling over in sleep or changing sides while lying in bed can seem to be an arduous task and is mostly accompanied by shooting bouts of pain down the affected arm
• The affected arm and shoulder seems to be weak and doing certain tasks that were previously quite easy would begin to seem difficult or even impossible.
• When the shoulder joint becomes severely damaged and there are subsequent adhesions in the capsule surrounding the shoulder joint, it can cause limitation of movements of the affected arm and shoulder. This situation is termed as frozen shoulder and it is extremely painful and disabling.

Management of Shoulder Joint Pain

• The management of shoulder joint pain depends entirely upon the severity of pain, cause of pain, extent of damage to the shoulder joint and limitation of movements of the arm and shoulder.
• If the pain is mild and due to simple inflammation, it can be dealt with easily by pain killers and anti-inflammatory medications.
• Palliative measures like application of ice packs to limit the damage and use of heat applications later on to relive pain may be suggested.
• Physiotherapy is an important part of shoulder joint pain management and can help in restoring mobility to the damaged joint.
• If the cause of pain is due to shoulder arthritis, then disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARD) may be used.
• If the pain is due to rotator cuff tear or frozen shoulder, then simple pain killers ill not be effective. Cortisone injections may be needed to subdue the inflammation.
• Shoulder arthroscopy is done to evaluate the damage to the shoulder joint. It can also be utilized to repair the muscle and ligament tears. The torn fibers are stitched and attached back to the joint.
• Shoulder replacement surgery is done only as the last resort, when nothing else works and the extent of damage to the shoulder joint is quite severe. This surgery involves placing a metallic prosthesis as a substitute to the damaged bone and joint.

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